Run Your Race

If you follow my blog you know this is not about time, distance or personal bests.  Running with God is about a spiritual closeness with God through prayer.  For me my best prayer time comes while I am running. I do have goals though.  I have races I would like to run and times I would like to beat, but I am running the race of my life.  I want to be successful in my race.  God has set out a race before all of us.  Hebrews 12:1 ...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us Run with patients the race that is set before us.   We each have our own race and our own path.  It is not a competition. God wants us all to be winners.  Where is the finish of this race you may ask.  Some would say that the finish is when we die and I can see that point of view, but I would like to say that the finish is at the feet of Jesus. When we run to the Lord and get to him and have given ourselves to him we have won.

It doesn't matter what path, route, race, or road you take as long as you end at the SON.

Run Your Race: Hebrews 12:1

Running with Freedom

It was a busy morning so I ran in the evening.  79 degrees but no humidity so not to bad for a September evening run.

Sun Set

 As I left the house things were vastly different from my run the morning before.  Yesterday morning was a struggle.  My mind was filled with thoughts and a battle was waging in my soul.  This made my running feel heavy.  It was as if I was dragging an anchor.  Tonight I was Free.  I was running and my body felt light.  It is amazing how quickly our mood can change when we listen to God and do what we should.  Tonight a certain bible verse captured my situation precisely.  

Hebrews 12:1

          Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great could of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

I had a choice to make yesterday.  I could have kept my struggles to myself and they would have festered and grown, but luckily God gave me a way out.  I am lucky to have a wife who loves me, in whom I have learned that I can share my struggles with and I have a friend that I can rely on when I am in need.  I have learned to use the people that God has placed in my life.

I am reminded of Ryan Hall the great american distance runner.  He has a book called Running With Joy.  It is a 14 week journal that details his preparation for the 2010 Boston Marathon.  In his book he chronicles how he grew in his faith with each run and how he was filled with joy as he finished the marathon.  He didn't win the race but he had achieved joy by not letting any of his struggles hinder him.